Slipper journalist given court deadline

13 Jul 2012, 7:19 pm   -   Source: AAP

Journalist Steve Lewis may have to identify a "confidential" source of information regarding sex harassment claims against parliamentary speaker Peter Slipper.

The journalist who revealed sexual harassment allegations against federal parliamentary Speaker Peter Slipper must identify his source to a court within a week or hand over a confidential document.

News Limited's Steve Lewis lost his bid on Friday in a Federal Court to set aside a subpoena compelling him to produce the document.

But Justice Steven Rares stood the matter over until July 20.

The court has yet to learn if the document points to Speaker Peter Slipper's media adviser, James Ashby, who filed the sexual harassment claim, as the source of Mr Lewis's information, or another source whom Mr Lewis agreed to keep confidential.

Justice Rares said Mr Ashby's relationship to Mr Lewis had already been established by Mr Lewis in a radio interview and from evidence provided in the ongoing case against Mr Slipper.

"Once the informant has been revealed as the source there is no point in protecting his or her identity," he told the court.

He also rejected arguments from Ian Neil, Mr Slipper's lawyer, that evidence showed the yet-undisclosed document would point only to Mr Ashby.

"... how do I know what is in this document?" Justice Rares said.

Mr Lewis has a week to indicate if the document leads to Mr Ashby's identity or another source that Mr Lewis agreed to keep confidential.

If it is the latter, the journalist would be protected under the Evidence Amendment (Journalist's Privilege) Act 2011.

Mr Slipper and the commonwealth are being sued by Mr Ashby, who claims Mr Slipper made unwelcome advances and sent him explicit, sexually suggestive text messages.

But Mr Slipper and the commonwealth are seeking an order for the proceeding to be permanently stayed as an abuse of the process of the court, claiming Mr Ashby's case is vexatious, designed to vilify Mr Slipper and destroy or damage his reputation.

In June, Justice Steven Rares granted leave for subpoenas to be issued for Mr Lewis, as well as former Howard government minister Mal Brough, Mr Ashby's media adviser Anthony McClellan and another Slipper aide, Karen Doane.

The court also heard on Friday that a text Mr Lewis allegedly sent to Mr Ashby stating, "We will get him," did not refer to Mr Slipper.

Mr Lewis's barrister Alec Leopold said the journalist's text message had been taken out of context and was not referring to "getting" Mr Slipper.

Instead, Mr Leopold said Mr Lewis was talking about finding a commonwealth car driver to talk about Mr Slipper's alleged travel rorts.

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